Swingline Stapler – Not Just Your Everyday Red Stapler

The Swingline Stapler name is pretty much synonymous for staplers. There was even a movie called Office Space, where one of the main characters, Milton, is constantly berated by his boss and his favorite red stapler is taken away. The red stapler was such a hit in the movie, it created a large demand for a red swingline stapler. As it turns out Swingline hadn’t produced a red stapler in quite some time, so Swingline seeing the demand, created what they called the “Swingline Stapler 747 Rio Red”. It is still available today. The red Swingline stapler in the movie was actually a Swingline 747 painted candy-apple red paint.

Swingline Stapler History

SwingLine was first introduced in 1925 by Jack Linsky. The original name was Parrot Speed Fastener Company with a manufacturing facility in Long Island in 1931. Eight years later the name would be changed to Speed Products. Eventually the name would be changed again to Swingline and the become a division of ACCO.

Parrot Speed Fastener was one of the first to produce staples glued together in a strip, rather than by metal attachment. This innovation improved staple loading over previous attempts and really improved the ability to load staples.

One of the early Swingline staplers was known as model 13. Not exactly sure why 13 was chosen, other than it was roughly 13 inches long. It remains a classic looking stapler from that time period. Most of the Swingline stapler model 13s that I have seen have the Swingline Stapler patent number 2136374. It was invented by Stephen A. Crosby for Parrot Speed Fastener Corporation.

The Swingline model 13 was constructed of steel, could staple up to 100 sheets of bond paper and could load 3 different types of high carbon staples (1/4, 3/8, AND 1/2 inch). What makes the Swingline even more unique is the Swingline power attachment that could be added. The power attachment made the stapler even easier to staple larger stacks of paper.